[Simon Dumont on the Cheese Wedge jump. Photo: Felix Rioux]Over ten days, the ten skiers have been and will continue to jump during the best light while their associated teams of photographers and videographers scramble the mountainside to secure media. Then, each photographer will present a slideshow, and each videographer presents a two to three minute edit that will be judged on creativity, cinemetography, storyline and skiing action. The winning team will take home $20,000.
[University of Colorado's very own, Mike Clarke throwing a Cork 9 in the Rhythm Section. Photo: Felix Rioux]This contest format is being tried frequently as of late, recognizing the power of video and photography in capturing the world's most impressive athletic action, breathtaking scenery and general positive vibe that comes with a venue and competition like this. The best skiing probably won't determine the winner, neither the best photography or videography, but instead the team's ability to work together to create the most stimulating and visually captivating media. No judging on the skiing alone while on the mountain is conducted so the importance of videographers and photographers roles are reinforced immensely. The continued development of home editing stations, digital SLR photography and the internet has allowed the emmergence of these competitions to flourish.
[Crazy European hang-glide follow cams. Sammy Carlson crazy american ski jumping. Photo Felix Rioux]This competition comes in a year when Jon has also conducted an amazingly successful experiment in online action sports media. He created a video blog that was updated at many important weeks of the season and bi-weekly after that. Thousands of viewers tuned in to every video to stay informed about what was going on in skiing. The value of a high quality, well maintained frequently updated blog was instantly recognized by Jon's sponsors as they realized their products and one of their star athletes was being exposed to viewers everyday. There is no doubt that in the future, that these video blogs, will be prevalent across many areas of action sports along with their potential for periodical news updates, online fictional drama and just about anything else a television station broadcasts. The effort to monetize these free blogs lies in banner advertising around the blogs as well as product placement within the videos. The role of product placement in video content will grow in this framework of free blogs.
